The Two Views

Last night I went to a movie with a couple of friends, neither of whom are even remotely Christian, yet I found both to be more entertaining and more pure than many of the Christians I have previously associated with. Reflecting on this, I have come to the Two Views of the Pagan (I just wanted to use that word. I simply mean those who do not consider themselves Christian).

The non-Christian is either hedonistic or noble. The hedonistic pagan is the one who has no qualms about how much he lives in the world. Curse words mean nothing to him and he would sleep with anything that moves.

The Noble pagan, on the other hand, had a Christian intellect if not a Christian belief. He understands the sacred nature of words and sex, and abuses neither. While he does not necessarily follow Christian morality, he understands the basic principles and his life works around them. With the existence of birth-control, most of the visible moral problems of premarital-sex go away, so even that can fit validly into the noble's pagan moral scheme. It may not seem to be Christian, but it is more Christian than many Christians.

These designations are of course crude and sterotypical, but by defining the two ends one definres the fullness of the spectrum as well. These can also apply to Christians, though generally the dichotomy is less severe.

Why do I get the feeling that G.K. Chesterton probably already worked all of this out and I just haven't read about it yet?